Snark and Fury

TwitterUp - New Year, Old Scams

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:08:00 +0000

Christmas Schedule View-A-Thon 5000 - Christmas Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Christmas weekend, here are some things that are on the telly.

Christmas Eve

Don't watch the TV until noon because before then there are a lot of bad films. Films like Garfield and Dudley Moore's Santa Claus The Movie. Just don't do it.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (Channel 4) 12.00pm - Muppets perform Dickens' tale with the usual puppety results. Contains Michael Caine.

The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe (BBC 1) 5.50pm - CS Lewis's story about magic Jesus lions and Turkish delight is given the Hollywood treatment. The child cast were rescued from a workhouse to appear in this film. They were then sold on for parts.

BBC 2 have a compilation of Morecambe and Wise shows and then a profile and a clip show about Les Dawson. There's then a Top of the Pops special and a documentary about the making of Blackadder. That's a pretty great line up and it begins at 8pm or you could tune in at 7pm if you want to watch a special about John Craven. Great stuff.

Channel Four is showing Bill Bailey - Dandelion Mind at 10.55pm which is not the strongest of his live shows but still good fun. Following that though is a Christmas classic which should be shown at a proper bloody time:

Father Ted - A Christmassy Ted (Channel 4) 11.55pm - Father Ted celebrates Christmas by getting lost in a lingerie department and then accepting a Golden Cleric award. Oh and Mrs Doyle is replaced by a tea machine. This is a classic Christmas special and should be shown at prime time instead of tucked away in the graveyard slot.

THEN GO TO BED BECAUSE FATHER CHRISTMAS IS COMING AND HE WON'T DELIVER YOUR PRESENTS IF YOU'RE AWAKE.

Christmas Day

It's Christmas Day, I'm not going to tell you what to do.

Well, other than tell you that Doctor Who is on at 7pm. Only inhuman monsters don't like Doctor Who.

You're not an inhuman monster are you?

And on that note - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I will see you next year for more of the same, have a great time and try not to eat all the trifle as that's my favourite.

Christmas Schedule View-A-Thon 5000 - Friday December 23rd

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:45:00 +0000

The first week of festive programmes is almost at an end. How have you enjoyed it so far? It's been rubbish hasn't it? Let's hope that the Christmas weekend can make up for a lacklustre showing...

Oh bobbins.

Nativity! (BBC 2) 6.20pm - Is this good? I don't know. It has Martin Freeman who was Tim from The Office and then Arthur Dent and then Doctor Watson and now he's Bilbo Baggins. Maybe he'll look into the camera a lot or perhaps go on an adventure. Seems he has to direct a school play. I'm sure there'll be some scenes where you'll see him desperately trying not to break the fourth wall.

Shrek (BBC 3) 7.25pm - The first one, the good one. The one that was an unexpected smash hit before the franchise was exploited with endless sequels and spin offs. Mike Myers' Scottish accent is still pretty bobbins though. "Arrrmmm an Oguurrrrrrr!"

Hitman (Film 4) 9.00pm - Hitman is rubbish but sometimes you just want to watch people get shot and see things explode. This movie contains those things.

Fight Club (Film 4) 11.00pm - This film is bloody marvellous and is my favourite David Fincher movie. A darkly comic story about anarchy, violence, advertising, office jobs, and Brad Pitt in a variety of bizarre outfits.

The Inbetweeners is on all bloody night and morning long on Channel 4 from 11.10pm onwards. BUS WANKERS.

Or you could watch The Nutty Professor at 11.30pm on ITV 2, you idiot.

Christmas Schedule View-A-Thon 5000 - Thursday 22nd December

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:50:00 +0000

I tweeted a couple of things about this evening's schedule. Basically there's not a lot on, you should probably wrap your presents or roast a log or put a turkey in a bucket.

View the story "Christmas Schedule View-A-Thon 5000 - Thursday 22nd December" on Storify

Christmas Schedule View-A-Thon 5000 - Wednesday 21st December

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Hello again, here's what's on the TV on Wednesday 21st December.

Freaky Friday (Channel Four) 11.30am - The one from 1976 with Jodie Foster in. Obviously better than the more recent Lindsay Lohan vehicle.

Oliver Twist (Channel Four) 1.25pm - A recent Ben Kingsley version, not seen it but hey, Charles Dickens. Also couldn't be as bad as The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, which was a bit shite. I wanted to like it but it's just wasn't funny. What a shame.

Top of the Pops Christmas Special (BBC 2) 7.30pm - Mark Radcliffe (my favourite ex-Radio One DJ) hosts the show which is a compilation of vintage clips. It's probably going to be 90 minutes of taking the piss out of old Christmas hits and Christmas outfits. That's not a bad thing (may actually be a bad thing).

Bad Santa (Channel Four) 9pm - Billy Bob Thornton is the best (worst) shopping mall Santa ever. A great film and one for the Christmas misanthropes of the world.

Christmas Schedule View-A-Thon 5000 - Tuesday 20th December

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:21:00 +0000

Look, I'll be honest with you - Tuesday is no good. The schedules are packed with a great big pile of nothing.

Okay, okay. There must be something worth watching, let me see...

Rev (BBC 2) 9.30pm - I like Rev, it is nice. I'm not a religious man but Rev takes a gentle, realistic view of life as a Church of England vicar in an inner city parish. The scripts tend to be great and although the jokes and situations aren't always comedy hits, it's clearly an intelligent programme that often examines issues about faith, life, death and over deep stuff, yeah? Anyway, this is the Christmas special and Tom Hollander will probably be brilliant in it.

The Bourne Supremacy (ITV1) 10.35pm - My favourite Bourne film, this is the 2nd of the series and sees Matt Damon return to kick several shades of international arse across Europe. Karl Urban is the antagonist and faces off against Damon in a bruising car chase through the streets of Moscow. Terrific stuff.

Here's the whole car chase, it's from the end of the movie so you know, don't watch if you haven't seen it. Or watch it and then watch the film. I don't know. You do what you want.

And that is it. I'd go to the pub instead. Or play a board game. Or write a TV schedule that's neither comprehensive or useful.

Christmas Schedule View-A-Thon 5000 - Monday 19th December

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:46:00 +0000

Hello again, what's on the telly on Monday? What? You don't want to know? TOUGH.

Monday 19th December

You should be at work in the morning and afternoon but if you have the good (or ill) fortune to be at home then you can start the day with...

Spacecamp (BBC 2) 9.20am - Kids go to a summer camp at NASA, or SPACECAMP (alloneword). Said kids accidentally launch into space and have to find their way home. It's got Lea Thompson (Marty McFly's mum and the only actress outside of specialist movies to have had sex with an anthropormorphic duck) and Joaquin Phoenix in it. It is not very good.

The Muppets Take Manhattan (Channel 4) 11.55am - Muppets go to Manhattan and take stuff. It's the Muppets, you know who the Muppets are.

After the Muppets you should take a break until...

The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff (BBC 2) 8.30pm - A parody of Dickens material starring Stephen Fry, Robert Webb, and David Mitchell. Let's hope it's good, eh?

As for the rest of the night, BBC 2 continue with Roby Brydon and a Nevermind The Buzzcocks episode with John Barrowman as host. Watch or avoid as appropriate there.

Channel 5 are showing Step Brothers at 9pm, it's a decent comedy as long as you can tolerate two middle-aged men acting like children and indulging in wacky slapstick. If you're not a fan of Will Ferrell then this film will not change your mind. I enjoyed it as a fun, dumb, unchallenging movie. Like ice-cream for the brain. You can follow Step Brothers with Walk Hard starring John C Reilly.

Finally, Channel Four continue their Christmas horror movie tradition with Rosemary's Baby at 12.05am. I love that Channel Four embrace the spirit of Christmas by showing movies about demonic children. Better get those presents right, parents!

Christmas Schedule View-A-Thon 5000 - Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th December

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Hello there, it's Christmas soon and I thought my gift to you this year would be a guide to the television on offer. Be warned, this year's offerings are poor but with my help you may just watch something decent, or at least know that there's nothing on without switching on your TV and desperately flicking through the channels while screaming.

I will begin with the week before Christmas. A whole week. I spoil you.

Saturday 17th December

I'm going to assume that you've done all your Christmas shopping already and you're not running through the streets of your local shopping centre panicking, yelling, and wielding a knife. So why not start your day with...

Well okay look, the morning is a write off really. Don't watch TV before lunchtime because there's nothing much on other than the usual guff. So skip to...

1.15pm About A Boy (ITV1) - A film starring Hugh Grant who's now a bit of a hero due to his constant battles against the tabloids. Apparently this is a good film, it's based on a Nick Hornby novel and he wrote High Fidelity which was a great book and a decent film. So yeah, there's a romantic option for the afternoon.

Of course you could wait a bit instead and watch:

1.40pm Splash (BBC 2) - Tom Hanks (the funny 80s version of Tom rather than the more portly and serious 90s 00s actor version) meets Daryl Hannah's mermaid and a literal fish out of water romantic comedy arises. This was a film my parents had on tape and I watched it about 4663 times during my youth, I like it, it's sweet. John Candy's in it too.

If you start watching either film and get bored or you've just got home from shopping in the wilds, you could tune into...

2.55pm Who Framed Roger Rabbit (BBC 1) - It's cartoons and Bob Hoskins together for the first time and the last time. Kids love it and dads love Jessica Rabbit while mums look at dads and think, "freak". Hoskins is a private eye drawn (ho ho) into a world of cartoon characters in this bizarre family friendly film noir. See if you can spot all the cartoon characters of years gone by and then wonder why you can't remember important stuff like your mum's birthday. You bad person.

After those films you can take a break, have some tea (or dinner if you prefer) and then make your way back to the sofa for...

6.35pm Harry Potter and The Tree of Nothing Part 3.2 (ITV1) - I'm not a Potterite, or whatever it is you kids with your wands call yourselves, but here is a film about a boy wizard and his magic owlbear. Or something. The kids love it. It's either that or watch Merlin at 8pm. Your choice.

8.55pm The Nightmare Before Christmas (BBC 3) - I'll admit that I haven't actually seen this film but this year THAT CHANGES. I will watch it. Oh yes. Even though I find Tim Burton's constant gothy whimsy immensely irritating.

If you don't fancy singing skeletons and pumpkins and that, you could watch Daniel Craig fight Nazis in Defiance at 9pm on BBC 2. Or you could watch...

9.00pm Die Hard 4.0 (E4) - Bruce is back and this time he's bald and old. I quite liked this because I'm a sucker for John McClane. Barry Norman said in the Radio Times that Timothy Olyphant isn't up to the part of the villain due to a lack of physical presence, "I reckon even I could have taken out a computer nerd like him." Barry, Barry, Barry you are entering a world of pain. Have you not watched Deadwood or Justified? Hell, you must have seen Hitman as it's your job to watch movies. Olyphant is a stone cold killer, he has that crazy gleam in his eye, the dude will straight up slap you to death. I fear for Barry Norman, maybe in his old age he's developed delusions of grandeur. Perhaps he paces around the house looking for someone to pounce on and bench press? Barry, calm down. Although I will admit that Die Hard 4 doesn't make the best of Olyphant's skills and doesn't really devote enough screen time to Willis and Olyphant scenes.

Finally let's round off the day by watching a festive classic...

12.05am The Omen (Channel 4) - If you're a parent and you're thinking of not getting your kid a Turbo Man or a copy of Doctor Who Series 6 on DVD then watch out, your kid could develop satanic powers. Or something. Anyway this is a classic film that I haven't seen so I will be watching it for the first time (despite having seen most of the deaths already due to their inevitable presence in movie clips shows like TOP 100 DEMONIC CHILD FILMS or whatever).

Oh yeah, you could forget all that and spend your entire evening on Film Four and watch Star Trek 1, 2 & 3 from 6.25pm. If you're that way inclined.

You may then go to sleep.

Remember to wake up the next day for it is Sunday and it is time for more television.

Sunday 18th December

Right, do you want to get up early and watch films all day? Do you want to plonk the kids in front of films all day? ITV1 seems to have you covered there (WARNING quality of films not guaranteed).

9.50am The Never Ending Story (ITV1) - Well that's bullshit because it quite clearly finishes at 11.30am in time for A Cinderella Story which stars Hilary Duff and which is probably awful. Then Jack Frost is on after that which also looks really crappy and creepy "Oooh my Dad's dead but he's come back as a snowman, what fun we'll have. NO WAIT THAT'S REALLY BLOODY WEIRD AND WRONG. STOP IT."

Of course you could watch Scrooge on Channel 5 at 1.00pm instead. It's no Scrooged but it's pretty good. After that...

3.00pm Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (ITV1) - Gene Wilder is bloody mad in this film. Bonkers mad. There's lots of catchy songs and it's got that weird psychedelic aesthetic going on, it's amazing.

After that have some Sunday sustenance and then reconvene back to the sofa for evening TV fun.

8.00pm Gremlins (ITV2) - It's one of the best Christmas films ever. Malevolent puppet monsters run riot in small town America. Joe Dante created a clever and very funny take on the Christmas movie that remains one of my favourite films. I used to watch it at Halloween as a kid but that was WRONG because it's a Christmas film. Stupid younger me.

Hancock is on Channel Five at the same time but man, where's the Christmas in that film eh?

There is a problem with watching Gremlins though, it means you'll miss the final episode of Black Mirror at 9pm. The show hasn't been quite what I hoped it would be but it's still an intelligent and thought provoking series and that's never a bad thing. Jessie Armstrong of Peep Show fame wrote this episode so it should be a cracker. Then at 10pm there's the Misfits series finale. I love Misfits and the conclusion to this series should be the usual combination of the crude, hilarious, and shocking.

If you don't like Misfits (what is wrong with you?) then I guess you could watch Bruno on Channel 4. It's on right after Black Mirror so you wouldn't even have to move, you lazy specimen of wretchedness. I haven't seen Bruno, it's probably quite funny and shocking and silly. I'll see it one day but probably not on Sunday.

11.35pm Carrie (Channel Four) - After Bruno is over, you can watch Sissy Spacek struggle to find a date for the prom. Poor Sissy. It's alright though, I hear they make her queen of the prom so it all ends well.

Then go to bed because you have work in the morning. GOOD NIGHT.

TwitterUp - Oh Look Another One

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:22:00 +0000

TwitterUp - Tardy Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:11:00 +0000

The Thumbcast and Theme Tunes

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:42:00 +0000

I’ve been remiss. I’ve made a mistake. I’ve assumed you all follow my twitter account. Not all of you do because you’re backwards or something. So let me tell you about my work with The Thumbcast...

I’m currently posting a bi-weekly feature on The Thumbcast called One Season Wonders. I watch (hopefully good) shows that lasted for only one series/season and praise them. I'm enjoying meandering through the wasteland of cancelled television and miniseries so take a look at something that isn't me moaning about Torchwood or Doctor Who games that bore me to tears.

Obviously you should also listen to the podcast itself and read the other posts on there too. Such as failed pilot series, The Pilots That Crashed and other entertaining bits and pieces. You should also pop along and vote for your favourite things of 2011 in The Thumbcast Awards.

There’s one other thing you can do there, you can vote for theme tunes to be placed on The Thumbcast Album. It will be an album containing the greatest theme tunes known to man from all decades. In order to get the ball rolling I’ve come up with a list of a few tunes I’d like to see on it:

Just a few suggestions, I'm sure you'll be eager to head over to The Thumbcast and add your thoughts. GO GO GO.

Doctor Who - The Gunpowder Plot

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:58:00 +0000

The Doctor and some guy.

Hello again, today I would like to tell you all about the latest Doctor Who Adventure Game, The Gunpowder Plot. I have covered all the other games in this series so now it’s time for me to produce my usual report on both game and story. I’ll split the review into two halves so first up is a review of the game itself...

The Game

Oh dear. It’s been almost a whole year since the last Adventure Game (the Vashta Nerada based Christmas episode) and surely the time has been spent evaluating the series so far and devising ways to make the game more fun? Less... crap? No it has not.

You may not remember my previous grumbles about this series and the inherent problems I’ve had with the game mechanics, and the general competency of the design. Let me remind you of the ways in which previous Doctor Who Adventure Games have offended me:

1. Stealth sections. Bloody stealth. Doctor Who is not Solid Snake or Rikimaru, he’s the Doctor, a stumbling, loud, talky man. The Adventure Games love include stealth sections that are usually too tough for kids and too frustrating/boring for manchildren like me.

2. Time limit finishes where precision and timed button presses are essential, neither of which are possible given that controlling the characters feels like driving a milk float in a pool of extra slippy custard.

3. Mini games that are boring and frustrating. The previous games decided to recreate the Doctor’s habit of bashing gadgets together out of bits of junk by forcing you to play tiresome min games, the worst being the steady hand game. The game that can be found at the fair where if you touch the wire with your metal loop there’s a loud buzzing noise and you lose. It is the worst game.

4. Lots of running down corridors. Okay, this is a Doctor Who tradition but it doesn’t mean that I want to spend my time up and down the same bloody sets like poor old Colin Baker in Mindwarp.

So after almost a year to clear up the mistakes in past games I was expecting an improvement, what I got instead was a neutered version of the same frustrating mess.
The good news is that the mini games are infrequent and largely painless, the hateful wire game has gone and is replaced with a simple connect the shapes puzzle. It’s pretty easy and not frustrating – great for kids and good for someone who just wants to get through the story. So although the mini games are still there, they’re largely painless and irrelevant. Hurray. Still, it would be nice not to have them at all.

And that’s the only positive.

The stealth section is present again, only this time the setting appears to be the traditional computer game staple of a bloody sewer. Not only do you have to play through a risible stealth section (now with added stealth ‘kills’) but you have to do it in a series of brown corridors. Fun. The stealth section is also overlong and repeated twice. Plodding slowly behind dim-witted aliens does not make for excitement or tension, it fosters boredom.

The traditional adventure game puzzles are incredibly easy and come across as half hearted. The good news is that it’s almost impossible to get stuck as almost all the puzzles can be solved with the sonic screwdriver or the psychic paper. The bad news is that it removes any thought or challenge to the puzzles. You'll often find an item but then realise that it’s the solution to the puzzle you’re about to encounter in the same area. Again, good for young children, bad for anyone who wants to put their brain to use. Still, I did find it funny that over the course of the game Amy manages to make use of the various remnants of a Chinese meal she keeps in her pocket.

The animation is appalling, everyone runs like the T-1000 in Terminator 2 and the water effects are awful. The game looks like it was developed 10 years ago, if you play the game at the default Medium graphics quality then Rory is a nightmare creature - a being spawned from beyond with fronds for hair and black liquid eyes. If you want to change any of the graphics settings you have to close down the game. There is no option to restart, you have to close down and restart yourself. I would also like to mention the incredibly bizarre bug I encountered during installation where for some reason the installer would hang for 20 minutes and then commence installation. I wasn’t the only one to have this problem and it took a trip to the official site to figure out why the installer wasn’t working.

Rory would like you to join him... IN HELL.

The game itself is terrible, the novelty of playing as the Doctor, Amy, and Rory soon wears off and you find yourself wondering how much time you’ve wasted watching poorly implemented cutscenes and listening to poor voice acting. Again it seems that there is little direction for the actors as even the normally excellent series regulars sound flat and unconvincing.

This is nothing I haven’t mentioned in previous reviews and it seems these problems will never be resolved. This is a tragedy, there was a chance here to create something truly special for the Doctor Who audience but the ball was dropped, rolled down a hill, and landed in an open sewer.

The Story

Enough moaning about the game, what’s the story like?

It’s actually not bad once you get past the crappy game mechanics and the tedious running through dull corridors and city streets. The Doctor crashes his TARDIS into another ship after escaping a horde of angry medieval Chinese warriors that Amy and Rory had managed to annoy. Dimensional lesions begin to appear in the TARDIS itself and the Doctor tracks more lesions to Earth. The TARDIS crash lands in 17th Century London on the 5th November 1605 and the Doctor and crew stumble across Guy Fawkes and his co conspirators, who are led by a strange woman with glowing green eyes...

It transpires that the Doctor crashed into a Rutan ship (Horror of Fang Rock) and stranded a crew of Rutans under the streets of 17th Century London. The Rutans want to blow up Parliament so that the explosion can propel their ship off Earth (yeah... what?). It’s not long before the Sontarans arrive to stop the Rutans and take the Rutan’s genocide device. It seems the Rutans were travelling to Sontar to destroy the Sontaran race with a viral bomb. The Sontarans want to get their hands on this bomb so they can reverse engineer it and use it to destroy the Rutan race.

After a lot of running up and down corridors and avoiding Rutan and Sontaran patrols, the Doctor saves Parliament by transporting it into space and recreating his anti-Dalek weapon from Remembrance of the Daleks to fight off the Rutans.

Eventually the Doctor reverse engineers the bomb to destroy the Rutans and gives a spare bomb to the Sontarans so that both races have the power to wipe each other out. The aliens, having reached a stalemate, decide to leave Earth alone and continue their war elsewhere. The Doctor then returns Parliament to Earth and leaves Guy Fawkes to be captured by the authorities.

The problem with the story is that it is constantly interrupted by the game itself and by heavy handed educational dialogue. “Hello, my name is Guy Fawkes, my favourite colour is green and I had liver and onions for dinner. I hope to blow up Parliament with my barrels of gunpowder. I hope I don’t get caught because the punishment of the time is to be pecked to death by a duck.” Well, that’s not quite what he says but it’s pretty much what happens every time you speak to one of the conspirators. I love history and I’m always interested in the stories of historical figures but the presentation in this game is sorely lacking. I remember an old collectible series called Discovery that had a Guy Fawkes special, it had wonderful posters and educational facts and stories behind the Gunpowder Plot. Hanging those posters on my wall was much more fun that playing this game.

The BBC has released some educational material for schools to go hand in hand with the game. I hope the PDFs are more fun than the game.

Halloween-O-Thon Part The Third

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:06:00 +0000

Hello there, I hope you are having fun tonight. I am busy constructing an elaborate bucket-of-fish-heads trap for the local trick or treaters. They love it when they ring the doorbell and 10 pounds of mackerel rains down on their heads. Their cries and squeals of delight can be heard for miles.

Now let me tell you about one of my favourite scary films.

The Thing

The Thing is magnificent, possibly John Carpenter's greatest film - sod Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, and In The Mouth of Madness because The Thing is better than all of them. In fact, The Thing combines the best parts of the other films to make a fantastic whole. The stalking suspense of Halloween, the implacable weather conditions of The Fog, the coolness of having Kurt Russell acting all anti-heroic, and the paranoia and creeping fear of In The Mouth of Madness.

Look, watch this and you'll see that even the trailer is great.

"Man is the warmest place to hide."

*Shudder*

Much like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the real horror of The Thing, is the loss of self. The thought that a creature could take your body, your personality, your being, your form and parade around in your skin, living your life. The victims of The Thing are perfect duplicates, the facsimiles retain memories and personality, nothing gives them away until it's too late.

Of course for those who don't consider identity theft a horrific idea, there's always the fact that The Thing can shapeshift into millions of hideous forms and kill you with pseudopods, teeth and alien ejaculate.

The film is set in a remote outpost, cut off from civilization and surrounded by harsh weather conditions. There is no escape from the alien terror, no safe haven to hide within, no outside help to call in to remove the problem. The desolate surroundings add to the air of encroaching hopelessness, of a land howling in pain and wanting to scrub itself of this alien infection.

Plus Kurt Russell is fantastic in this film. Snake Plissken and Jack Burton are cartoon (anti)heroes, RJ MacReady is a more rounded, everyman character. MacReady is clearly someone who has seen horror before, his matter of fact demeanour with each new crisis suggests someone who has seen horror and conflict. He's also a man with little remorse or love for his fellow cabin mates. I have a theory about MacReady, it's not a clever one but I think he was a Vietnam veteran. He's a helicopter pilot, he's sullen to the point of being anti-social (hell, he lives in a shack away from the rest of the men), he's a drinker, and he knows how to handle a weapon and explosives. For MacReady the paranoia in the research base is probably very similar to the constant fear of time spent in the jungles of Vietnam. That's just my theory anyway. Not ground breaking or particularly insightful but I think Russell's performance does give some depth to the character that isn't in the script.

I was fortunate enough to see The Thing in the cinema last year. There were two showings over one evening, both sold out. It was amazing to view the film on the big screen with a packed audience cringing and shifting uncomfortably during the quiet periods and reacting with yelps and cries of horror during the gory action sequences.

The Thing is a film that should live on your shelf, slowly absorbing the other DVDs into its collective and making them dance for its own amusement.

No I don't know what I meant by that last part either.

Halloween-O-Thon Part The Second

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Hope you're enjoying the evening so far, please avoid the apples, I hear they have raisins in them.

Sorry, razors.

Here is Limmy off that Limmy's Show with his own scary story.

Halloween-O-Thon Part The First

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:05:00 +0000

Hello, it's Halloween night so I thought I'd share some of the scariest videos and posts with you. First up is this bone chilling tale from a very young Stephen Fry.

Brace yourself for the horror that is, The Letter.

THE COSMIC TERROR DOWN AT FRAGGLE ROCK by HP Lovecraft

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:07:00 +0000

TwitterUp - Link-A-Mania

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:10:00 +0000

Web Snark - Torchwood: Web of Lies

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:57:00 +0000

Today I was reminded by Rob Buckley that Starz commissioned a Torchwood webseries starring Eliza Dushku. At the time the news was too terrible to contemplate so I blanked it from my mind, but now I have been reminded of it, I must see it. You can watch it too. JOIN ME. Go on, watch it and then come back for some of my thoughts.

That was terrible wasn't it? I mean, really bad. The animation is awful, like something from a flash video from ten years ago. The artwork varies wildly in quality from frame to frame, it seems that whoever is responsible is trying to ape Bryan Hitch without actually being any good. Gwen in particular varies in appearance from frame to frame, just watch how her nose changes shape.

Speaking of Gwen, Eve Myles destroys Eliza Dushku. Eliza's performance is the usual comatose, emotionless reading that she usually delivers. A particular highlight being when she can't muster any kind of strong emotion at the news of the 'death' of her brother. She sounds like she's burnt the toast rather than suffered the loss of a loved one. Eve, to her credit, gives her usual full on Gwen performance.

There's supposed to be an intriguing mystery behind it all as Gwen's scenes are set in 2007 whereas Eliza's character is living through the Miracle Day. Jack is kidnapped but there's no suspense as we all know that he's fine when Miracle Day begins. Plus, who really believes that anything of any real consequence will happen to the main characters in a webseries that only managed 30,000+ views since its release (as of today)?

The blessing is that the episode is only four minutes long so at least it doesn't take up too much of your time. The frightening thing is that the rest of the series is only available on iTunes but someone who was dedicated/insane filmed their PC and put the videos up on YouTube. I believe there are ten episodes in total, you would have to send me real cash money to make me watch more than the first episode. I'm talking upwards of an English pound.

TwitterUp - The Return Of

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:23:00 +0000

The Mosquito Song - An Interview About A Book With ML Kennedy

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Hello, sometimes I read books, you know those paper things with all the pages and writing in them. I usually don't review them because between my gaming, watching TV, and posting stupid recaps, it takes me weeks to read a novel. I love books though, I'm just neglectful in my affections. Why am I waffling on about books? Well, someone has knocked on the door of Snark and Fury Towers, book in hand, asking to be let in and take up a moment of your time.

Let's see what he has to say for himself...

Who are you and what are you doing here?

I'm ML Kennedy. I'm here to shill my book, The Mosquito Song. I mean, I’m here to talk about my work of literature in a dignified manner. Really, though, you should all buy it. It’s easy to read and it comes with a free short story!

What is your book about?

The Mosquito Song is about what it means to be human when we are given the ability to push the boundaries of what one might consider human. Or, less pretentiously, it is about a vampire who travels to Chicago to solve a mystery after being accosted at a grocery store near Buffalo, New York.

What makes your vampire story unique within the genre?

The Mosquito Song is different from other vampire stories in that it is completely bereft of supernatural elements. Other vampire stories try this thing, but usually give some half assed exposition about viruses without really understanding how these things work. They say their vampires aren't magical, but the vampires still explode quite easily.

I think that The Mosquito Song is more aware of the genre, as well. The character has seen depictions of vampires in various media and will react to them.

Does the book contain any life lessons? Or practical advice? Like how to cook the perfect bolognese or change a lightbulb?

The book contains a few life lessons and quite a bit of practical advice. In fact, it gives one useful hints on home invasion, stealing cars, and attacking strangers.

For culinary questions I would advocate Irma Rombauer's indispensable Joy of Cooking which offers handy recipes for everything from pancakes to squirrels.

To change a light bulb, I was once informed by a college professor to get seven youth Spartacists: one to turn the light bulb and six more to yell "Smash darkness!"

Did you listen to any music while writing your novel? Is there a track or album that you consider to be the soundtrack to the book?

In college, I used to play the Ramones to write papers more quickly. I once wrote fourteen pages in 45 minutes while listening to Ramones Mania. Nowadays, though, I tend to get distracted if things are going on during the actual typing.

For the second part: I think the Talking Heads "Life During Wartime" is probably representative of the manic bit of the book, whereas the depressive parts can be summed up by the Flaming Lips "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate".

As an American, do you find yourself living in morbid fear that one day Great Britain will return to reclaim its former colonies?

My grandmother is Canadian, so I think I'd be able to adjust. This is providing, of course, that a large percentage of the conquering forces were wearing fascinators and/or spoke like Gumbys.

If you could have a celebrity endorsement of your book, who would you choose?

Carl Weathers, star of Action Jackson. It would have to be either Carl Weathers or Kim Jong-Il.

How about a fictional character to endorse the book? Who then?

Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation. I try to live my life by his teachings.

Name a hairy dog.

My own dog is quite hairy. He’s part mountain dog and has this ridiculous double coat that sheds clumps of white fur. They come out in handfuls like giants balls of cotton. He has the common dog name of the General Douglas MacArthur. We almost went with the General DOGlas MacArthur, but my wife has a strong distaste for puns.

If you could guest star on a TV show, which show would it be and what would your guest role be?

I'd kind of like to be thrown from Graham Norton's big red chair. I think it would also like to be stabbed by Ian McShane on Deadwood.

Either way.

Finally, where can we buy your book?

Right now, paper copies of the book are being hand-pressed in Austin, Texas and are set to be released on Halloween through Tiny Toe Press. Americans can find the paperback or the eBook at Theopenend.com/bookstore . British folk can go to Amazon and buy a Kindle version for the pre-sale price of £2.23. So that’s about two pounds and whatever it is you people call a quarter.

***********************************************************************************************************************************

Right, I think we've heard enough from this fellow now. I think if you were to purchase his novel it would prevent him having to aimlessly wander the streets, waving his book around and harassing the locals. Of course it may only encourage the fellow to produce more of his penny dreadfuls...

If you would like to return the favour and harass Mr Kennedy in his own home then why not visit http://themosquitosong.tumblr.com/

Web Snark - Dragon Age: Redemption

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Hello, today sees the release of multi media tie-in webseries, Dragon Age: Redemption. I enjoyed Dragon Age: The First Game and found it to be a deep, complex, and very well written fantasy world. A webseries set in the same universe would surely be an instant hit. Redemption stars Felicia Day out of that webseries about MMORPGs that the kids all like, and she was in that Joss Whedon show, and that other one, oh and that singing supervillain webseries that everyone loved. It also stars Doug Jones who was Abe Sapien in that film where Ron Perlman wears red paint.

So the pedigree is there, let's have a watch and I'll jot down my thoughts as we go along.

0:25 - This is taking forever, we've only just got to the title card. You know what's good about games? You can usually skip the endless title cards at the beginning.

0:30 - And so we begin with a massive chunk of expository text. This is always a bad sign. If you have to write down the entire background to your film and force the audience to read it before they can start watching, there's something wrong with your plot/script.

0:42 - More text and, as Mr Richard Cobbett pointed out, someone keeps splashing blood all over the background. Although splashing blood on everything (and using the accompanying blood splatter sound effect) is a fine Dragon Age tradition as you will soon realise.

SUPER NERDY OBSERVATION ALERT

0:45 - This bit about "The Qun" is very simplistic and slightly misleading. What I gleaned from the playing Dragon Age 2 is that it's basically communism with a caste system. Peasants from a feudal system encounter The Qun system and sometimes decide that they're better off working for/with the Qunari so up sticks and leave their noble masters. I don't think there's any evidence in the game lore of anyone being 'forcibly' converted (other than in unreliable accounts from the nobles who have lost subjects to The Qun or from Qunari occupied villages that mass converted to it). That's what I like about Dragon Age though, it's complex and you can never really know if you're being told the correct version of events. Seriously, you should give the game a try. A five minute webseries is always going to struggle to convey the complexity of an 80+ hour game.

NERDY OBSERVATION OVER

0:55 - More text. Mages, power struggle, blah, blah.

1:10 - Finally, a set and some actors!

1:13 - "This will make you talk." Not if you put a knife in his throat, it won't.

1:26 - The guy on your right, look at his armour - it's paper! Look at it! That's papercraft armour!

1:44 - Hey look, it's Doug Jones! Hi Doug! I hope Del Toro makes another monster movie soon so you don't have to keep appearing in stuff like this.

1:45 - Sorry, I should say that Doug is playing a Qunari. There supposed to muscle bound giants. It looks like they only managed 'taller than average'.

2:22 - Magic Fingernails of Choking? I don't remember this spell from the game.

2:35 - Well, that's the opening sequence over with. Didn't it remind you of a live action intro to a terrible 90s game when live action in games was all the rage - ON CD-ROM?

2:48 - Those pig carcasses look very plastic. Maybe fantasy pigs are made of plastic in Kirkwall?

2:53 - Why is she chopping the same bit of pork over and over? Is it because it's not really meat and therefore an illusion of butchery, carefully constructed for our entertainment?

3:19 - "Knife-ears" is the crappest fantasy racial slur I have heard. "Hey you, yeah you! Your ears look like knives! Hahahaha!" "Uh okay, see ya." The world of Dragon Age is supposed to be a horribly racist place, the least they could do is come up with an insult that would actually cause offence rather than mild annoyance.

3:25 - So this fight doesn't make a lot of sense, she seems to parry his knife with a bone and outmuscle a man who's got several pounds in weight on her. I know this is supposed to establish Felicia Day's badassery but they could have at least coreographed the fight to make it look credible.

4:00 - This Qunari's wig is... incredible.

4:24 - Hey look it's the low cut suit of armour that provides no protection to the chest! Hooray for Armour of Fan Service +1!

4:48 - She jumps out of a tree so hard that her hood magically removes itself from her head rather than dropping forward and covering her face.

5:03 - "I'll carve it out of you - but my battle axe is made of rubber, so can I borrow a knife?"

5:15 - Look, it's the man who wears paper armour! And in bright daylight the armour looks as flat, thin, and two-dimensional as paper!

5:25 - So the choreography for this fight is, "wave your weapons in circles in the air and then Felicia does a backflip to redraw her knives which she had already drawn in the previous shot."

6:08 - Look out! A slight incline! Someone might fall down that and graze a knee!

6:28 - Nooooo! They fell down the slope! The grazing! The terrible grazing!

6:34 - It's okay, Felicia did a cool action pose after rolling down the incline so she's fine. The other guy probably has a nasty cut on his knee, maybe even a bruise on his arm.

6:38 - And just for the fans, here's a Nicola Bryant style cleavage shot of Felicia while on top of a man.

6:51 - She puts her knives against his throat.

6:54 - Cut to his face and there are no knives against his throat, in fact, nowhere near.

7:00 - Blood!

7:02 - Which then splatters all over the credits.

Okay, that was bad. Felicia does not convince as a cool, deadly assassin and everyone else in it is clearly from the local amateur dramatic society (apart from Doug Jones of course). I don't understand why EA/Bioware would give the go ahead on this series without providing some help with the budget. This is not a good introduction to the Dragon Age world and it will surely struggle to pull in the casual fan based on the production values on screen. If I didn't know anything about Dragon Age, this would not convince me to investigate further. However, this series will probably get a healthy number of views due to the power of Felicia (in fact it's already at 40,000 within a couple of hours of release) so I'm sure there's some kind of plan behind it. I'm just not sure what the aim of this webseries is.

NEXT EPISODE - Lots more rubber ears as Felicia visits the elves.

The Fades - An Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:18:00 +0000

Hello, I have been watching BBC Three's The Fades and it's quite good. I understand some of you may not have watched it so I have prepared this quick character guide to prepare you. After this you can quite happily tune into the show, already clued in!

So now you know everything, there's no excuse not to check it out. It's on the iPlayer or on BBC 3 Wednesdays at 9.00pm.

And Now For My Very Personal Take On The Cancellation of Doctor Who Confidential

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:43:00 +0000

TV Snark - Torchwood Miracle Day Episode Ten

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:37:00 +0000

I have done something special for the series finale. BEHOLD.

Tworchwood Episode Ten

noreply@blogger.com (Aaron) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:17:00 +0000